The kind folks at eMediaVitals.com – an online site dedicated to the profession of journalism – were kind enough to invite me to put up an article building on my remarks to the LA Press Club a few weeks ago.

Here’s the opening:

Every media brand in existence is working to build a community.

Most of them won’t succeed.

Many won’t succeed because the business organizations that are trying to implement the communities are themselves crumbling, caught in a downdraft of declining revenues, causing cuts resulting in declining quality which leads to declining audiences who pay less and are less valuable to advertisers – and so on.

And some won’t succeed because they are doing community wrong – treating it as an adjunct, a bolt-on feature,

So as I’ve been trying to do a “Big Business Social Media” deck, the news is full of a study that seems to show that small business doesn’t use social media very much and doesn’t much like what it uses.

I’m shocked, just shocked (not really). Actually, it kind of confirms what I’ve been seeing in talking to small business owners out in the wild.

Here’s the lede (sorry, the study doesn’t seem to be available; I’m just piecing together clips about it from press releases and blog posts):

Sites like Facebook and Twitter have taken off among individuals for personal use. But what about the use of social networking at small businesses?

A survey commissioned by Citibank and conducted by GfK Roper found that some small businesses see little reason to hop onto the social-network bandwagon.

I’ve written a few times about the importance of ‘quality’ in building online communities.

Today the LA Times confronts the question, as a heated screed in response to an editorial on immigration was first left up, then taken down in response to reader reactions.

The comment in question was clearly heated and racially charged.

And I think we have an interest – especially about important and controversial issues – in promoting civil disagreement.

I’m very happy that the Times was willing to bring the issue up for discussion and comment (you can hop in and comment as well).

But there’s something here that makes me a little queasy. I think we play by somewhat different rules when we move from commerce to policy,

As I was coming back from my bone-liquefying cold (defined as one that leaves you draped over the sofa like a boneless chicken), I got a last-minute request to stand in for Andrew Nystrom of the LA Times on a LA Press Club panel discussing trends in the news industry in the face of all this customer-generated content.

They just sent over some pictures….

Here’s the lineup. From the right, Mickey Kaus of Slate, Erin Broadley of Village Voice newspapers, Thomas Kelley of Yahoo, me, Jill Stewart of the LA Weekly.

Here’s Jill laughing at my ineffable smugness (I’m putting this picture here to try and train myself not to ever, ever use that facial expression in public again).

I had three basic points,

It’s getting there…

Small Business Social Media Part One V Draft
View more presentations from Marc Danziger.

By that I mean that we assume that most people do what we do and follow our normal cycles…that’s uniquely dangerous for consultants and trebly dangerous for new media consultants.

I was just at the eye doctor, and commented that I’m probably in front of a monitor 9 to 10 hours a day. From reading newsfeeds and early emails at 6:30 in the morning to one last glance at the blogs at 11pm just before I go to bed.

It’s what I do for a living as an information worker – I email people, write things, research things, build presentations, and read and approve other people’s documents.

I had a small moment of Zen clarity the other day; I was reading Chris Brogan’s blog where he wrote about ‘5 Things Small Business Owners Should Do Today Online.’